Dramatic Restored Vintage Photos of NASA Gemini Missions [SLIDESHOW]

Astronaut White floats in zero gravity of space off the coast of California. White is attached to the spacecraft by a 25-ft. umbilical line and a 23-ft. tether line,both wrapped in gold tape to form one cord. The visor of his helmet is gold plated to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun.ToTheMoon.ser.asu.edu

Astronaut White floats in zero gravity of space off the coast of California. White is attached to the spacecraft by a 25-ft. umbilical line and a 23-ft. tether line,both wrapped in gold tape to form one cord. The visor of his helmet is gold plated to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun.ToTheMoon.ser.asu.eduDigitally restored images of Man's early Space missionsToTheMoon.ser.asu.eduDigitally restored images of Man's early Space missionsToTheMoon.ser.asu.eduDigitally restored images of Man's early Space missionsToTheMoon.ser.asu.eduDigitally restored images of Man's early Space missionsToTheMoon.ser.asu.eduDigitally restored images of Man's early Space missionsToTheMoon.ser.asu.eduDigitally restored images of Man's early Space missionsToTheMoon.ser.asu.edu

Released by NASA, these rarely-seen images have been digitally restored to an incredibly high quality, showing snapshots of life literally out of this world.

It's incredible to think that man ventured into Space more than 45 years ago - as part of the Gemini projects - when technologies like colour television, mobiles phones and personal computers were nothing more than figments of imagination. The Gemini missions laid the foundations needed to launch the following Apollo missions, which would seen man reach the Moon.

What's most striking about these images is the clarity and sharpess of them, and even today more than 40 years later some shots still look like frames from a science fiction film.